A 120-car Norfolk Southern Corp train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derailed and spilled in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, adding to a string of recent accidents that have prompted calls for stronger safety standards.

There were no reports of injury or fire after 21 tank cars came off the track and crashed into a nearby industrial building at a bend by the Kiskiminetas River in the town of Vandergrift.

Nineteen of the derailed cars were carrying oil, four of which spilled between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of oil, Norfolk Southern said. The leaks have since been plugged. The two other derailed tank cars held liquefied petroleum gas.

The train, which originated in Chicago, was destined for an asphalt plant in Paulsboro, New Jersey, owned by NuStar, a NuStar spokeswoman said.

The clean-up was under way on Thursday as a heavy winter storm gathered pace, leaving about 4 inches (10 cm) of snow on the ground by midday Thursday. An investigator from the Federal Railroad Administration was en route to the scene, the railroad regulator said.

"I heard a strange noise, a hollow, screeching sound," said Ray Cochran, who watched the train derail from his home on a hill above the tracks. "I looked out the window and saw three or four tankers turn over and one of them ran into the building."

The train, which was also carrying food products, crashed into a track-side building owned by MSI Corporation that makes metal products.

All employees had been accounted for, said Sandy Smythe, a public information officer with Westmoreland County's public safety department, which includes Vandergrift borough.

And I’ve read that a couple of bh0’s big backers and are against the pipleline own a lot of railroad shares, thus profiting from moving the oil by train. thus their ‘environmental’ reasons are GREEN MONEY, not a green environmental.

It’s not the technology, it’s the people. A generation ago, this would have been feasible. But this type of job requires special skills. Skills that today’s generation of slackers and graduates in Women and Communist Studies don’t possess.

” - - - Thursday’s accident is the latest in a spate of crude oil train derailments that has prompted calls for more stringent rules regulating crude by rail, shipments of which have soared in recent years as pipelines fail to keep up with growing supply. - - -

From this key quote we can conclude the following:

1.) The problem: Pipelines have failed to keep up with growing supply.

2.) The solution to the problem: Enact more stringent rules for regulating crude by rail shipments.

All yuh gotta do is sit in a stuffy Congressional room and solve all of the Nation’s problems by just passing laws, regulations and holding press conferences!

I sure hope that all business leaders take notice, and stop learning all that technical stuff, and just ask your Congress Critter to pile on more Regulations!

Summary:
...21 tank cars came off the track...
...2 of the derailed cars held liquefied petroleum gas...
...19 of the derailed cars held crude oil...
...4 of the 19 crude oil cars developed leaks...
...those leaks have all been plugged...
...between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of oil was spilled...
...clean-up is already underway...
...there were no reports of any injuries...
...there were no reports of any fire...

18
posted on 02/13/2014 2:56:19 PM PST
by Repeal The 17th
(We have met the enemy and he is us.)

Just to be clear, did Norfolk Southern get the required Environmental Impact Statement before this derailment?/sRamirez's latest political cartoon LARGE VERSION 02/13/2014:LINKLINKto regular sized version of Ramirez's latest, and an archive of his political cartoons.In this political cartoon, Ramirez presents, "The ACA White House REVISED edition"

FOLKS, THOSE OF YOU WHO CAN, PLEASE CLICK HERE AND PENCIL IN YOUR DONATION TO HELP END THIS FREEPATHON. THANK YOU!We're over 54% now. Cool!...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

21
posted on 02/13/2014 3:15:01 PM PST
by DoughtyOne
(Immigration Reform is job NONE. It isn't even the leading issue with Hipanics. Enforce our laws.)

I wonder where the train was headed. There is a lot of CSX oil tanker train activity in our vicinity (through Selkirk) headed to the Port of Albany. It has greatly stepped up recently. I wonder if there is a democrat/Cuomo connection - I didn’t know about the Buffet train ownership connection...

Train handling... There was probably a grade there or the locomotive engineer was was power braking through the curve... envision the train as a rope you are pulling around a curve... The more tension on the rope the more lateral force to the inside it will have

In that picture, the wheels may have dropped inside the gage (wide gage)...and then the drawbar pull “stringlined” the train.

they will need to put good, modern security techniques in place. There are radicals who will without question sabotage these trains, and there will be deaths. The leftie radical environmentalists will stop at nothing.

39
posted on 02/13/2014 6:11:03 PM PST
by elpadre
(AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)

“Somebody should invent a system of underground pipes that can transport this type of product efficiently and safely.”

And bypass the railroads. Which is exactly why such a system was invented and installed by J. D. Rockefeller at the beginning of the 19th century in his fight against the railroads who kept jacking up their rates for transporting kerosene.

Funny thing though. Looks like we’re right back to that same situation all over again, except this time the White House is squarely on the side of the current railroad robber barons in thwarting pipeline construction.

40
posted on 02/13/2014 6:29:15 PM PST
by catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)

And Ive read that a couple of bh0s big backers and are against the pipleline own a lot of railroad shares, thus profiting from moving the oil by train. thus their environmental reasons are GREEN MONEY, not a green environmental.

Warren Buffet got this covered...

His holding company recently brought a company specializing in additives that improve the flow of oil in pipelines.

We ship oil all the time by rail tanker, long before Obama got into office

Just one point. We are shipping a lot more oil now due to increases in domestic production combined with a lack of approved pipelines. So while the rate of accidents may not change, the number of accidents is quite likely to be higher.

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